Flash Fanfiction - Episode 36 - Kid Flash
by Reign Atkins
Summary: The group is facing the consequences of Harry's action from episode 35. Wally has gained powers and has become Kid Flash, using his newfound ability to its full advantage.
1. Chapter 1

Wally awoke early morning and his heart was racing faster than it ever had before. His hand seemed to be quivering as he had seen Barry's do multiple times before. "What the hell?" he wondered.  
He got out of his bed quickly, he managed to speed to the mirror, knocking into his book shelf which caused things to fall on to the floor.

Before his glass photo frame of he, Joe, Iris and Barry could fall to the floor and smash, he managed to pick it up, amazed at his own speed.

"Whoa!" he gasped. He pulled up his shirt and looked into the mirror. "Man, I have a six-pack!" he said, astonished with himself.

He sped to shower, get dressed and raced out of his house and over to STAR Labs, where the team, all but Barry were currently frozen in the cortex. He stood beside Caitlin, he needed her help.

"What the hell?" Wally exclaimed, as time sped up again.

His sudden appearance scared the hell out of her, making her scream out loud in fear and accidently drop and smash the beaker that she had been holding, on to the floor.

"Sorry, Caitlin! Let me clean it up!" Wally said excited. He got to work instantly, as Caitlin looked over at Cisco and Astrid who joined them immediately, in the medical bay.

"What's going on?" Astrid asked. "...Wally?"

"Hi guys!" Wally said excitedly, already having cleaned up the mess.

"Oh… this is soo cool! We have a new Flash!" Cisco said excitedly.

"No, not cool!" Caitlin demanded. "Does Barry know? What about Joe and Iris?"

"How the hell did this happen? Joe's going to kill us!" Astrid groaned.

"I'm not sure, you guys!" Wally said excitedly, "I just woke up this way. This is really cool!" he grinned back at Cisco.

"Man, we have to give you a nickname! and costume!" Cisco said smiling.

"Damn right, we do!" Wally replied.

"Let me think of something... it can't clash with the Barry's but it has to fit..."

"Sit down, Wally. Let me run some tests." Caitlin interrupted. Before she had finished his sentence he had already brought Cisco's comfortable computer chair over to them and was sitting spinning circles on it in Caitlin's medical bay.

"Wally stop!" Astrid demanded. "You'll smash something."

"Sorry! I'm just so excited! I have powers, like you guys!"

"Who has powers?" Barry asked as he walked in to the cortex with Joe.

The group went silent, as Joe and Barry both realized just who had spoken.

"No! No! No!" Joe demanded. "What did you guys do to him!" Joe demanded of the group.

"Hey, we did nothing!" Cisco said, "he came to us like this!"

"Wally? What did you do?" Joe demanded of his son.

"I woke up this morning with speed powers! Hey Barry, let's race!" Wally said getting to his feet.

"No! not in my office!" Astrid demanded as Wally ran past them and began circling the cortex.

Cisco grinned excitedly. "I know, he can be Kid Flash!"

"No nicknames, Cisco!" Barry demanded, "Caitlin, do you think we can reverse this somehow?"

"I don't know." She replied, shaking her head. "We will need to determine what caused this."

"Kid Flash? I love it!" Wally said appearing in front of them. "Put me to training guys!"

"Yeah, we're doing this!" Cisco said excitedly.

"No, we're not." Astrid told him. "Joe… I promise that we'll find a way to reverse this."

"Can we just see how fast he runs first? He can go for a run on Barry's treadmill." Cisco pleaded with her. As he said the words, Wally had run to the treadmill and had begun running as fast as he could. Cisco and Caitlin went over to the treadmill to monitor him.

Astrid looked over at Barry and Joe. "I don't know how the hell we're going to fix this. Or how the hell it happened."

Joe thought for a moment. "I'm trying to figure out if he has done anything out of the ordinary…" Suddenly, all three of them realized that there had been one out of the ordinary event that had happened to them recently. Harry had cooked them a delicious meal the night before.

Just as they thought of him, Harry entered the cortex silently and made his way to his office.

"Er… Harry…" Astrid stammered, "Can you come here for a moment?"


	2. Chapter 2

"What the hell did you do to my son?" Joe snapped at DR Wells, throwing him up against the wall and holding him by the throat, practically blocking his windpipe.

"Sutherland, would you mind giving me a hand here?" DR Wells gasped.

"I would… but, you're forgetting that I can read minds! How could you! Wally's just a kid!" she snapped as she and Barry both approached.

Barry immediately pulled Joe away from DR Wells. "Hey, Joe… we can't kill him… But we can try to determine why he would do this."

"Speak!" Joe demanded of Harry.

Astrid focused on DR Wells' mind, he knew that she was doing so, which caused him to bring up a wall in his mind.

However, she was able to pull the thoughts from his mind, nonetheless. She gasped at what she saw.

"What? What did you read?" Joe asked her with tears in his eyes, "why did he do this to my son?"

Astrid shook her head. "I can't get it from… He's doing that wall thing!" She lied.

"I did it because we could use him on our team." Harry finally said. "I know I should have asked, but…"

"That's not good enough!" Joe snapped, as he pulled out his pistol.

"Whoa! Guys!" Cisco called out, "You need to check this out… Kid Flash's readings are off the charts! He just beat Barry's speed."

"There's gotta be some mistake!" Barry exclaimed as he and Joe joined Caitlin, Cisco and Wally at the cosmic treadmill.

DR Wells attempted to make his escape but Astrid followed him into his office and closed the door behind her. "What was that Harry? And don't lie to me!" she snapped.

Harry stared at her, "You clearly read my mind, so you know exactly what it was… or more so, who it was."

"That's just… that's impossible… He was here? He screwed with our heads? Man, Cisco is going to flip!"

"No, because you're not going to tell him… For the first time, this is something that we need to keep from the rest of them… If what he said was correct, we're going to need to arm ourselves from Barry…"

"You're asking me to keep a secret from my fiancé and my best friends… Do you understand how much you're asking of me?"

"Yes, I do… it's for the best… He made me promise not to say anything… and he was from the future… that has to account for something."

Astrid sat in Harry's chair processing the information that she had retrieved from his mind. That not only did she have a son in the future, but he had been here and had tried to kill their own friend Barry.

After a while, she nodded. "Okay… so, we will need to…"

She stopped speaking as Cisco barged into the office "He beat Barry's record! That is exciting! But, I don't think Barry is taking it well… I think his ego was a little… hey, what's wrong?" he asked noticing Harry and Astrid's expressions.

DR Wells stared at Astrid, waiting to see what reply she would come up with.

"We don't have a cure for him…" she lied, giving Harry a glare as she spoke. "We're not going to be able to fix him."

"So we have another Flash to train?" Cisco asked.

"That's precisely what we have, Ramon!" Harry said, nodding in his direction, "So, go do what you do… Train him, make him a suit so we don't anger the detective any more than we have done."

"Sheesh! Don't you mean more than you've done? This is all your fault! But, at the same time… thank you… I was hanging out to make a new suit!" Cisco left immediately, leaving Astrid and Harry in the office.

"Thank you, Sutherland!" Harry said.

"You seriously just made me lie to the man who is going to be my husband! For what? It's probably going to split us up… cause some freaky time loop thing and then this will have never have happened! Argh!" she left the office immediately, before Harry could explain the ramifications of time travel.

By this time, Barry had taken over his cosmic treadmill and was trying to beat Wally's record, and failing miserably. Although he didn't want to admit it out loud, Joe was silently proud of Wally's success, just as much as he was angry at DR Wells.

Barry ran faster and faster, tripped over and slammed into the wall behind him leaving a huge hole in the wall.

"We should really move that thing!" Cisco commented.

As Caitlin helped Barry to his feet, she said, "I'm guessing that Wally's speed has to do with the serum, he did ingest the speed of multiple speedsters."

"So we have a ticking time bomb on our hands!" Joe said angrily.

"Only if we fail him." Astrid said, "We can continue to be angry about this… or we can train him and hope that we succeed…"

"So you guys are going to train me?" Wally asked excitedly.

Barry looked from Wally to the rest of the group, his ego slightly burned "It seems that we have no choice! But you need to take this all very seriously."

"Oh, I will, I promise!"

"Good!" Astrid said. "Guys, you know what you need to do!"

Joe looked at Wally in defeat, and then back at Barry. "I'll give Captain Singh a heads up about why you're going to be late this time."

"Look, Astrid, Cisco, Caitlin? Do you, guys mind working with him? I'll be back later!" Barry said.

"Sure, Barry." Astrid said, knowing that Barry would be the best person to train Wally, but was currently trying to process things himself.

Barry and Joe left the cortex in a huff.

"So, they're mad at me." Wally said.

"Nah, not mad…" Cisco said, "Just…"

"They're mad at the situation." Caitlin finished.

"And at Harry." Astrid added. "Alright, Kid Flash… let's put you to work."


	3. Chapter 3

With Barry gone and DR Wells in his office, Astrid, Caitlin and Cisco subjected Wally to numerous trials and tests at Ferris Air field that they would regularly put Barry through.

Wally had just proven to them a truth that they knew would make Barry slightly intimidated. Caitlin was currently feeding Wally a ton of a Big Belly Burgers as Cisco ran through the reports with Astrid.

"Barry is going to flip when he sees this!" Cisco said excitedly.

"That's why we won't tell him," Astrid replied.

"What do you mean we won't tell him? I'm pretty sure this is vital to their mission to save Central City!"

"No, Cisco!" Astrid shot back. "If we tell Barry, it will not only bruise his ego, but it will also bolster the ego of Wally and if we do that we could prove reckless… He's a kid! We don't need that unpredictability! Right now this secret stays between us!"

Cisco stared at her suspiciously. "Right… Okay… We won't tell Barry… But what about Caitlin?"

Astrid looked over at Caitlin and bit down on her bottom lip. The truth was that her mind was currently miles away.

"Can we tell her?" Cisco asked her after a good bout of silence.

"Hmm?" she asked.

"Hello? Jedi? Are you even listening to me? Sheesh! We're not even married and we're having listening problems…"

Astrid stared at him and brought her thumb nail to her teeth anxiously. Her mind was still miles away.

"Hey… Astrid, are you okay?" Cisco asked as he put his arm around her. "What's going on? You can tell me…"

Astrid was brought back to the present moment. She had been stewing over the thoughts that she had seen in DR Wells' mind and then and then over their conversation. She brought her hand back away from her mouth and said: "I'm good… Just a little tired. I guess we'll need to run Wally through a crime sooner or later… maybe a fake crime? I really don't want to put him into any danger Why don't you pretend to be a mugger? Take Caitlin's purse or something and breach away."

By now both Caitlin and Wally had approached them.

"A fake mugging?" Wally asked. "I'm guessing you didn't do that with Barry… Did they?"

Caitlin smiled, "No… Barry's first rescue mission was saving Astrid from her flying car… and then a cyclone in the middle of Central City."

Astrid looked over at Caitlin, giving her a look to not mention anything further of Barry's heroics. "Barry is older and he didn't have the luxury of multiple trial runs. You do this our way, or we don't do it at all… Okay?"

Cisco and Caitlin looked at her. Sure, they agreed with her, but her stern voice of authority was rather chilling. Cisco saluted her. "Yes, mama bear!" he said with a smirk.

Astrid glared at him. Sure, she was keeping a time traveling secret from him but it was important right now. "Cisco… Caitlin… Fake the mugging, please?"

They nodded and Cisco breached them as far away as they could.

"Wally, be ready!" Astrid said, "Watch and listen… Cisco has a strategy with his breaching… You need observe where he looks before he raises his hand, that will help you determine where he will breach too."

Wally nodded and they waited for Cisco and Caitlin's queue. Cisco took Caitlin's handbag, and the moment Caitlin let of a squeal, Wally ran for Cisco at full pace.

But before he could reach him Cisco breached out of the way. Astrid spoke into Wally's head. "You need to be quicker, Wally! Watch where he turns to… it's the same with Barry… They both have a tell… Work out what they are!"

She continued to watch as Wally and Cisco continued to play and endless game of hide and seek. After two minutes, Wally managed to capture the purse and hand it back to Caitlin. And then for added benefit, transported both she and the handbag back to Astrid.

Cisco breached back after a few seconds.

"Kid Flash did great!" Cisco exclaimed. "I tried to trick him up there… were you feeding him strategies, Jedi?"

Astrid smiled over at Wally, "God no… That would be cheating!"


	4. Chapter 4

Cisco called from his computer desk in total frustration, capturing Caitlin's attention. "Uh oh, Houston, we have a problem!"

"What's going on, Cisco?" Caitlin asked as she stood behind him glancing at the screen from over his shoulder. By the multiple green and blue dots on the screen and the alerts going off she could see that there were numerous crimes all taking place throughout Central City.

"Alert Barry, now!" she demanded.

"Don't you think I would have done that by now? He's not responding and with Astrid and Harry in their meeting, we only have one guy who can deal with this!" Cisco replied, knowing that Wally was far from being ready for his test run.

"Then you go with Wally… We'll deal with the consequences later! I'll give you directions and continue to search for Barry!" Caitlin replied.

"I'm on it!" with those words, Cisco had pressed the alert on his phone to summon Wally, he was there before Cisco could remove his finger from the button.

"Do we have a crime?" Wally asked excitedly.

"We have multiple," Cisco replied, "…so suit up!" before Cisco could finish his sentence, Wally was ready in his brand new yellow suit that Cisco had spent the entire day working on. It was of the same design as Barry's, but entirely different all the same.

"Damn, this is so exciting!" Wally said once Cisco had taken him out to deal with the crimes and Caitlin was linked in to their communicators.

"Don't do anything reckless, you guys!" Caitlin warned, "…or Astrid will have our heads!"

"Relax, Caity! Vibe has it handled. Hey, Kid Flash, now follow my lead!"

"We're playing follow the leader? Come on, You're supposed to be the fun one!"

"We're not playing, man! You need to..."

Suddenly their signals disappeared from the screen the moment that Caitlin spotted Barry's tracker reappear, clearly he had just switched it back on. Caitlin put their disappearance down to Vibe's breaching abilities so she didn't think much of it.

She called Barry's phone and was relieved when he answered straight away. "Barry, thank god you're okay. We've been worried sick about you! Where are you?"

"It's okay Caitlin. I'm on my way back, I just went and spoke to Iris. Joe and I figured that she deserved to know about Wally."

Before Caitlin could answer, Barry appeared in the cortex with a large smile. He kissed her on the mouth. "I'm okay, I promise. Where's the others?" he asked.

Caitlin glanced down at the computer screen. Cisco and Wally's trackers still weren't visible. "Astrid and Harry went to a meeting. Cisco took Wally on a test run… and that's not right… They're signals… They're not coming up!"

Before Caitlin could say anything further, Barry had disappeared in search of Cisco and Wally. He had scoured all of Central City. When he returned, he had a serious look of disappointment written across his face. "Contact Astrid and Harry… They're missing!" he said.

When Astrid and Harry had returned from their annual meeting with the board of directors and investors, they were unaware of the reason in which they had been summoned.

"Seriously, Bruce Wayne knows how to push all of my buttons!" Astrid said in frustration. "I'm just glad that Cisco learned that he isn't Batman… Wait, Caitlin, Barry… where is he and what's this big emergency?"

She and Harry both stared from Caitlin to Barry. It didn't take her mind reading ability to learn exactly what had happened. That boh Cisco and Wally had disappeared!

"Where are they?" Harry demanded of them both.

Astrid ran an instant scan of Central City and felt the overwhelming feeling of both fear and frustration. "I can't get a reading! and it's about to get worse... The military is back in town!" she said.


	5. Chapter 5

"Woah, man… where are we?" Wally asked as he awoke and brought his hand to his head. He and Cisco seemed to be in some sort of dark holding cell.

There was a dim light radiating from the concreted hallway on the other side of the metal bars, which had them closed in like inmates.

Cisco stood at the bars, trying to determine just where they were. It certainly wasn't Iron Heights. But then he remembered the underground Military facility where it was rumored to hold prisoners a long time ago. That had to be where they were.

"Cisco, my powers don't seem to be working," Wally spoke up again.

"Yeah, neither are mine. I don't want to lie to you… so, I will tell you straight. I think we've been captured by the military."

"Like that time with that big shark guy?" Wally asked him.

Cisco nodded solemnly. "The problem is if our powers aren't working from in here… Astrid won't be able to get a reading on us."

At that moment Wally was struck with terror. "How did we even get here?"

"Those bad guys… don't you remember? They shot us with something! They must have removed our trackers while we were out. Man, this is my fault! I shouldn't have been so stupid!" Cisco said banging his hand on the metal bar. It hurt, naturally, but he grimaced through the pain.

"Don't be so hard on yourself. They will find us." Wally replied as he stepped toward him.

But Cisco didn't want to wait. He continued to bang on the metal bars and call out to his captors. Whoever had left him there, had to have done so for some purpose. He was going to find out what it was. "Hey! Come down here!" he continued to yell out.

"What are you doing?" Wally asked him.

"I'm bringing those hombres down here! Pretend to be having a heart attack or something… The guys and I used this same trick on some aliens a while back!"

"Aliens? That's so cool! You guys get all the fun!" Nonetheless, Wally pretended to cripple over in pain holding his chest. It wasn't very convincing.

"Is that the best you can do? Our lives depend on it!" Cisco said.

Wally smirked, "you're teaching me to lie… I hope you won't be like that when you actually have kids."

"Yeah, well my kids won't see everything as a game! Do you want us to be stuck here? Now just do it, okay? Heart attack… Vamos!"

Wally's eyes grew wide, he grabbed onto his chest and knelt down on the ground, groaning seemingly in crippling pain.

"Damn, that's more like it!" Cisco said as he got back to yelling out to his captors.

"No, you don't get it…" Wally groaned. "I'm not faking it! My chest it hurts… My whole body! Cisco, help me!"

Astrid paced the cortex in a furious frenzy. "Why did you let them go out there?" she demanded of Caitlin, doing her best not to lose her temper.

"There were so many crimes… Cisco said they could handle it!" Caitlin replied.

Astrid shook her head in frustration. "No! He shouldn't have done that! We're supposed to be a team! How come none of you have figured that out yet? We are better as a team! This is why we will fail!"

At this point, she was yelling and it had caught everybody off guard.

"Astrid, I'm sorry…" Caitlin stammered.

Astrid turned her glare onto Harry. "This is your fault, Wells! Just tell them… Or do I have to? It's because of you that this has happened!"

"Astrid, are you okay?" Barry asked, "…you need to calm down."

"Don't tell me that I need to calm down, Barry!" she snapped back at him, this time even louder. As she did, the lights began to flicker around them.

"Sutherland! Get a grip of yourself!" Harry snapped at her, as he took notice of the lights.

"Harry! You drugged a kid with a speed serum!" she said angrily. "You did it because mine and Cisco's son came back from the future to kill Barry… Because Barry makes a large mistake in the future which ends in the death of all of us! This is a big deal!"

Harry felt as if he had just suffered from a serious case of whiplash. Barry was confused, and Caitlin was trying to contemplate just what mistake Barry could have made in the future.

Just as she had said those words, she realized her mistake. But at that point, she didn't care. "Now, we all know your secret, Harry. There will be no more secrets between us! Because look where it gets us! We need to find…"

"Astrid!" Caitlin gasped, cutting her off midsentence.

She looked up at Caitlin, who was staring in the direction of the elevator entrance. Astrid followed her gaze to see Bruce Wayne standing there.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" she snapped again, angry to see Bruce standing there. "How long have you been lurking in the shadows, Mr Wayne? We've already told you that this place is off limits."

Bruce stepped towards her with an amused grin on his face. "Long enough to know that you need my help."

"We don't need…"

Before she could finish her sentence, Caitlin said: "Astrid, why don't you come with me… Let Dr Wells and Barry speak with Bruce."

Barry stepped up, knowing that Astrid was only a few steps away from erasing his memories. Bruce had clearly heard everything.

"Actually, I think that it's time that I was honest with all of you…" Bruce said, gesturing for Astrid and Caitlin not to leave.

"What do you mean, Mr Wayne?" Harry asked him.

"Cisco is a good friend of mine… In fact, this will not the be the first time that I have granted you all with my assistance," Bruce said.

"What are you talking about?" Barry asked him.

"I am talking about the truth that Cisco knows of… I will help you rescue him… Because… well, because I'm Batman!"


	6. Chapter 6

As Cisco knelt over Wally, yelling out as loud as he could, he was deeply concerned for the young new speedster. Wally was certainly not faking his ailment.

"Come on! Somebody, help us!" Cisco yelled out to whoever could hear them.

"Cisco, this… it… it can't be good!" Wally groaned.

Cisco placed his hand on Wally's shoulder and patted his arm, in a bid to comfort him. He felt powerless to help Wally and most of all, he felt guilty. He never should have offered to take Wally out to solve the crimes before he was ready.

He figured that Wally's situation had to do with the speed force coursing through his veins. There had to be just too much of it for his body to handle. Whatever the reason was that would force Harry to have done this had to be serious!

But now he and Wally were stuck dealing with the consequences and Wally could most probably die.

Cisco's yelling must have worked because he suddenly heard the screeching of a door opening and the arrival of voices.

"Hey! Who's making the noise down there?"

"I am!" Cisco called out. "My friend is having some sort of heart attack. He needs to see a doctor!" From in the dim light, he saw two military officers descending from the stairs looking right at him. They picked up their pace and ran to unlock the prison door at seeing Wally's predicament.

Once the door was opened, Cisco's desire to leave was at his highest peak. But he couldn't leave Wally. Nor could he risk Wally's life at taking his body and breaching out of there. He wouldn't be fast enough.

Nonetheless, he stayed. A rifle was pointed at his head by one of the soldiers. "No funny business!" the man holding the gun said.

"I promise… Just help him!" Cisco pleaded.

The soldier who was observing Wally spoke into his walkie-talkie. "We have a problem… One of the speedsters is having complications… over!"

The response came quickly. "Bring him to medical! Leave the others in their cage… Over and out!"

"Did you hear that?" the soldier with the weapon, asked of Cisco. "He comes with us… You're staying here."

"No, you don't understand!" Cisco stammered. The clicking of the rifle being cocked made him stop speaking instantly.

Wally was ordered to stand. "Cisco… What do I do?" He stammered.

"Just hang on, Wally!" Cisco called out after him. "Just hang on!" The cage door was slammed shut in front of him and locked. Cisco watched on as the soldiers led Wally away.

He kicked at the bars in frustration and let out multiple sounds of aggression even after they had disappeared.

"Hey!"

Cisco heard someone call out to him. He focused his eyes on the other prison cells. It was hard to see in the dim light, but at least he could still see.

Cisco could see a silhouette standing in one of the other cells on the left of the room. He was clearly just as much a prisoner as Cisco was.

"Who's there?" Cisco asked him.

"Don't worry about who I am… Who was that kid?" the voice asked. There was a familiarity with his voice… One that Cisco couldn't quite put his finger on.

"I'd rather not say," Cisco said, knowing that he shouldn't be risking either his, or Wally's identity to just anybody.

"It's okay… I guess that I should tell you who I am. We need to help each other. Where I come from, they call me the Flash!"

Cisco was in shock. This guy didn't sound like his friend Barry Allen. In fact, he sounded much, much older.

"Dude, I don't know what you're on… But that isn't funny!" he replied.

"I know you… I know your voice… Wait, is that you Cisco? You have to trust me! It's me, Barry!"

This had to be a trick… Every other version that he had ever met of Barry was of the same age. This was clearly some guy who was set out to trick him. Maybe he had been watching them all along.

"That guy back there… that was Wally, wasn't it? We have to help him!" The man called out.

"Look, I don't believe you!" Cisco said. "I'm just going to back away from these bars right now…"

"Cisco, no! Don't! You don't understand! I need to help you guys! I can't make the same mistake twice!"

For someone who had met multiple dopplegangers in the past, Cisco knew that it was possible that this could be another version of his friend.

Hell, even time travel was possible! Although it gave him a headache to think about it. But this guy could also be of some assistance, and right now… He was out of ideas.

"If you're Barry, prove it!" Cisco said.

The stranger went silent for a moment and then spoke up again. "Astrid, she is an anomaly, right?"

Cisco went silent. Astrid certainly was an anomaly… she never should have survived the car crash in any other timeline. He didn't answer.

But the stranger continued on speaking: "In your time… this timeline… she was saved twice… The second time was by your Barry. The first time, it was from another Barry."

This news was alarming. How did this man know this? It was certainly possible that this could be 'that' Barry. Cisco needed to be cautious how he approached this man.

"That other 'Barry' was you, wasn't it?" Cisco asked.

"Actually, no. It was another Barry… You see, I am the future version of your Barry. I came back here to right some wrongs that I made and I got caught by the military!"

On hearing this news, Cisco's mouth gaped wide open. "Woah… this is heavy!" he said as he turned around to face the back of his cell and sat down.

"Cisco! Cisco!" older Barry called out to him. But Cisco was having trouble focusing on anything else at that point.


	7. Chapter 7

The General looked on as the young speedster was worked on by his team of military-trained medical professionals.

"General, this man's speed is far too fast for his own body. It hasn't been in his system for long!" one of the doctors told him.

"What are you trying to tell me? We need assets, we're not wasting precious resources unless we have a sure thing!" The General barked.

"An asset is an understatement of what we have here, sir! This young man could be the fastest man alive! Even faster than that old man that we have downstairs! He is perfect for our super soldier team and he has youth on his side!"

"Well, do all that you can for him. We can't let him die!"

"Yes, sir!"

The medical team continued to work tirelessly on Wally West for another hour until they had him in a stable, though highly sedated condition. He was sleeping though he was bound to the bed by the cuffs which had been created using the radiation of the meteor rocks.

"He's stable, sir." The chief doctor said. "He needs his rest."

"Are those cuffs strong enough to hold him down?" The General asked as he pointed down at the binds that were securing both Wally's arms and legs.

"Only the best, sir!"

"Well, then the rest of you… come with me!"

On their General's command, the medical team left Wally in the sedated state that he was in and followed the General out of the room, closing the door behind them.

Wally's health rejuvenated very quickly, thanks to the speed-force that was coursing in his veins. He began to twitch and soon enough, his eyes opened.

The first thing that Wally saw was that he was alone. Cisco was nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless, he called out in a mere whisper. "Cisco? Cisco?" Wally whispered out to the empty room.

He moved his arm only to see that it was trapped. As was his other and also his legs. He needed to get out of there.

He remembered a trick that he had seen Barry do time and time again. Phasing!

Wally focused all his attention and all his energy on trying to get it to happen. But it was no use.

From outside the door, he began to hear voices. They must have been coming back for him. He needed to free himself. Once again, he focused on his wrists… and then, it happened!

They started to phase. Wally could have sworn that the cuffs were similar to the ones that STAR labs made for Central City's criminals. Why else would the military be using them on him?

Whatever they were, they were not limiting his powers. He needed to phase through them. His first and then his second try were both unsuccessful. The voices were coming closer. He mustn't have been fast enough. This time he phased even faster.

His third try was successful! His wrists were free. This time he tried the same thing with his ankles. The voices were on the other side of the door. The door was opening. Now was his chance!

As the military doctor walked back into the room, the first thing that he was alerted to was that the speedster was gone.


	8. Chapter 8

The Flash, Batman and Mind Marvel reached the underground military base while keeping in communication with Caitlin and DR Wells back at STAR Labs. They were in what used to be the sewers, but due to the new piping that had been carried out, it wasn't anymore.

There were soldiers scouring the facility, but they managed to take them off one by one, using tranquilizer pistols. Unfortunately, there seemed to be power dampening materials lining the walls of the base, so neither Astrid or Barry could use their powers.

"Great!" Astrid said in a sarcastic whisper. "We're up against the military and I can't mind blast them!"

"It could be worse," Barry replied. "We could be their super soldiers…"

Astrid shrugged. He was right.

Batman bypassed them. "On my lead, this isn't the first time I've taken down a military base," he said.

Astrid wanted to argue, but strategically she knew that he was right.

Batman took down a large group of soldiers using a tranquilizer grenade and then threw down a smoke bomb.

"What don't you keep on that belt?" Barry asked him.

"Don't ask questions! Keep your head down, don't breathe in the smoke and let's go!" Batman said in a gruff voice. The three of them ran through the smoke cloud and made their way to a large coded door.

They could hear the soldiers who they had not taken down with their weapons, coughing due to the blankets of smoke that surrounded them.

"It's a keypad!" Astrid said, gesturing to Barry. "We need to hurry!"  
Barry stepped up to the keypad, but before he could run through a sequence of numbers, Batman handed him a small gadget with an infra-red scanner at the end from his belt. "Here… try this!" he said.

Barry took the tool and scanned it over the dial pad. The code was instantly generated and the door automatically unlocked.

"Let me guess… Cisco?" Astrid commented. But Batman didn't answer, instead, he stepped into the dark corridor that lay before them.

From somewhere up ahead they heard the distant sounds of voices in combat.

But the voices didn't seem to be coming for them. They picked up their pace and ran down the hallway, where they were welcomed by a flickering display of orange lightning shooting back and forth as the speedster took down all of the soldiers in the room. Bullets began to ricochet around the base like ping pong balls, getting stuck in the walls. Batman, Barry, and Astrid chose to hide in the shadows out of the way.

"Orange lighting?" Batman asked.

They could hear Caitlin's voice in the background. "It must be Wally. In theory, he has consumed the speed of multiple speedsters… I believe it's the effects of that."

"I don't understand…" Barry said as he held out his hand.

"Oh, well your lightning emits…" Caitlin began.

"No, Caitlin," Astrid replied. "He's talking about the fact that Wally's powers are working! We still can't use ours."

"Well, Wally didn't get his powers through the meteor shower, remember?" Caitlin replied. "It's possible that he has an immunity to most of our power dampening technology… That is amazing!"

Within seconds, the gunshots stopped. The soldiers were unconscious and amongst the silence stood Wally, entirely in awe of himself.

Batman, Barry, and Astrid all emerged from the shadows to approach him.

"Thanks for the help, you guys!" Wally said confidently.

"You know us, it seemed like you had it handled," Barry said. He leaned over and hugged the young man. "I'm glad you're okay… But where is Cisco?"

"Follow me!" Wally replied.

They made their way down to the holding cages where Cisco was still waiting for them. "You guys came!" he said ecstatically as Astrid unlocked the door.

The moment that it had been unlocked, Astrid flew into his arms. "Don't you ever go off on a heroic mission without consulting me again, is that clear!" she demanded of him the moment that she had let go.

"Sorry, how did you stop them? Our powers seemed to be dampened down here." Cisco asked.

"Actually, that was Wally!" Barry said. "He's the only one who can actually use his powers…"

"Wait… you can use your powers?" Cisco asked Wally. "Why didn't you do it down here?"

"I didn't know that I could…" Wally said defensively, "Where did Batman go?"

"Batman was here?"

Sure enough, Batman had once again disappeared.

"That guy is such a pain in my ass!" Astrid sighed. "Okay, let's get out of here!" She, Barry and Wally turned ready to leave, but Cisco walked toward the cell where the other prisoner still stood.

"Where are you going?" Astrid asked him.

Without an answer, Cisco stared face to face with the older version of their friend. "If you really are just who you claim to be you will know what Astrid's abilities are…" He told him.

"Who are you talking to?" Barry asked him, as he, Astrid and Wally stood beside Cisco and stared at the other prisoner.

The resemblance, despite the age to his face, was uncanny to Barry.

"Wow!" Barry muttered.

"Barry?" Astrid stammered.

Though the older Barry continued to stare at Cisco, he said: "I understand just what you are asking of me. I will comply with all of your tests… You can even submit me to every test that DR Wells and Astrid can deliver together. Because the only way that I can prevent the same mistake from happening again is by cooperating with all of you."


	9. Chapter 9

As Caitlin delivered a series of blood tests, urine tests on 'older Barry' and checked over his overall health, Astrid continued to monitor his mental activity. The memories that she saw were extraordinary… there was so much pain, happiness and shocking moments that were yet to come. DR Wells looked on, while Barry and Cisco spoke with Wally on the other side of the cortex.

"You're looking pretty healthy for a man of… how old are you?" Caitlin asked him with a polite smile.

"Sixty-two," he replied.

Before Caitlin could continue, Astrid asked: "Why are you letting me see all of this?"

Older Barry smiled up at Caitlin and then asked her politely if she could give he, Astrid and DR Wells some privacy.

Caitlin who was feeling very uncomfortable seeing to the medical wellbeing of the older version of her boyfriend agreed and left to go and speak with the others.

"This is the only way that I can save all of you," he replied. "You all need to be ready or my past will become your future."

"Well, aren't you just breaking all of the time traveling rules? There have to be consequences, MR Allen!" DR Wells demanded.

Older Barry got to his feet. "There is nothing that could be worse than destroying time and killing all the people that I know and love!" As he spoke he looked over at Caitlin.

Noticing his gaze, Astrid realized from all the memories that she had seen within this man's mind, his heartbreak of losing Caitlin had destroyed him. But he had been the one to break up with her… He had moved on with Iris and had broken Caitlin's heart in the process.

In his memories, Astrid had seen that he had gone on to have children with Iris because he and Caitlin couldn't produce offspring of their own.

While that memory was crippling, the memory of the destruction of STAR Labs, which had ended in the loss of her very own Cisco had destroyed her much more than she could have imagined.

Astrid witnessed the shrapnel of their very own STAR Labs sign which had been completely destroyed, as it pierced Cisco's body, killing him. Dr Fate and Constantine had also been there.

Nonetheless, while these memories were there, older Barry had witnessed the departure of both Astrid and Caitlin. He had seen Astrid's child grow up under the care of Captain Singh.

There had been a battle only ten years ago in his mind, where they had brought Cisco back… only for Barry to make the big mistake that cost him everyone that he had loved five years ago.

"What do we do?" Astrid asked finally, as she sat down beside him and stared in the direction of her friends and Cisco.

Older Barry put his arm around her shoulder and hugged her as her own friend would, while DR Wells slipped away. "Remember, Astrid… whatever we have gone through in the past, you will always be my best friend… and that nothing is ever set in stone… Your son might believe that Wally is the key to prevent me from making that mistake… But that's not true. You are my best friend, but you are also the only person who can stop me from making the same mistakes again. Our fates will always be linked. Please, don't let me make the same stupid mistakes! I can't be made to suffer that same way again!"

Astrid looked at the Barry who sat beside her and released a sigh of despair. "Somehow, this has to be wrong. You are pretty much leaving the fate of all of us in my hands. That's a lot of responsibility!"

"But you guys are a team! It's not only on your shoulders… it's on theirs too. I shut all of you out. I let… well, I let the wrong person dictate the choices that I made. But I trust you. The first thing you ever told me when you, Cisco and Caitlin helped me from my coma… it was that I needed to trust you. Along the way, you and I lost sight of what was important. We shut each other out. We can't keep doing that anymore… Please, Astrid!"

"We are a team, aren't we?" she smirked. There were stray tears in her eyes, which had been placed there by the memories of destruction.

"Yeah, we're team Flash!" Barry laughed.

"Okay, I'll tell them," she said. "No, I won't tell them… I'll show them. Here's hoping that we won't make the same mistake twice!"

"Good idea!" he replied.

Astrid got to her feet and called the attention of the others. "You guys?" she said.

Barry, Cisco, Caitlin, Wally, and DR Wells all approached them.

"Are you okay?" Barry asked her.

Astrid shook her head. "No, I'm not. In fact, none of us are going to be okay unless we take fate into our own hands. I need all of you to clear your minds. I'm going to transfer a series of memories into your heads which will impact all of you… I need you to stay strong. Some of them are a little… hard to handle! But please, you need to see them."

"Jedi, what's going on?" Cisco asked her.

The crippling memory of his death made her want to crumble then and there, but she would not. This was her chance to change their future.

"Just clear your minds, please." She said.

She watched as they all did so, and once she could see that their minds were blank, she began to transfer every one of the older Barry's memories into their minds. Their expressions of happiness, shock, and sadness told her that they could see the visions loud and clear.

When the memory transaction was complete they stood in silence, unsure how to deal with all that they had just seen.

"Astrid… How…" Caitlin stammered, but she couldn't find the words to finish her sentence.

"I died? I died!" Cisco muttered.

"Cisco, all of you died… because of me!" Barry said softly. "I killed you all… How… how do we change that?"

Older Barry stood up from the med-bay bed. "You're going to have to find a way… Because you're Team Flash!"

"Team Flash?" Cisco asked. "Why can't we be Team Vibe? Team STAR Labs, even? Team Flash is a bit narcissistic, don't you think?"

"Whoever we are," Astrid said. "I promise you, that will not be our future!"

Older Barry sent her a smile. "Then my job is done… Please, don't fail each other!" he said to Barry, who merely nodded.

"You look like you need a hug!" Cisco said, noting the expression on older Barry's face.

He smiled. "Yeah, I think I do.

"This is a little too touchie-feelie for my liking!" DR Wells said as the rest of the group hugged the older version of Barry.

When they parted, the older man said: "I need to go… Please, don't make the same mistake again." With those last words, he looked from Barry and then to Caitlin. He smiled at her and then disappeared before their eyes, not to be seen again.

 _ **Thank you for reading my Flash Fanfictions. While this may be the end of a chapter, I have recently started writing my own storylines. If you are interested in reading them, I have a Wattpad account under: ReignAtkins. I'm not sure when or if I will continue writing anymore Flash fanfictions due to a number of reasons... Otherwise, this is MindMarvel signing off.**_


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